CLOSED WORKSHOP
Bauhaus.Listening.Workshop #3 Johannesburg

In the workshop various questions of listening and transcultural interconnections will be explored in an artistic-performative process.

Mon, 18.03.2024 -
Fri, 22.03.2024
9:30 AM - 17:30 Goethe-Institut Johannesburg

Third Bauhaus.listening.workshop starts in Johannesburg

After two successful workshops in Montevideo (Uruguay) and Sagada (Philippines), the third Bauhaus.listening.workshop will now take place in Johannesburg from 17 to 22 March 2024. Sound practitioners and theorists from Southern Africa will meet to exchange ideas about listening cultures and radio history in the region.

The workshop is part of the artistic research project "Listening to the World - 100 Years of Radio". Under this umbrella, a cooperation between Experimental Radio, Goethe-Institut, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Haus der Kulturen der Welt the team has been reflecting on radiophony and listening as a global phenomenon since 2022.

Following a workshop in Montevideo (Uruguay) and Sagada (Philippines), the third Bauhaus.Listening.Workshop will focus on the history of radio and listening in southern Africa - where radio listening is strongly interwoven with indigenous listening. The history of radio in Southern Africa ranges from the influence of guerrilla radios, including in the independence struggles, to older techniques of telecommunication through music. The workshop, curated by Masimba Hwati, will be led by Nathalie Singer, with the support of the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg and Frederike Moormann.
From the curatorial statement of Masimba Hwati: “In most of Southern Africa listening is shared with others id est. ancestral others, present others, others not yet born. Listening also means that all matter is/ has/ can be an ear (receiver) or mouth (transmitter). Even the tongue can be an ear, an apparatus of reception and listening, but also with an ability to sound and vibrate. How can these cultural ways of listening be applied and preserved today and what is the place of radio in all this?”

Among the guests are researchers such as the renowned broadcasting expert Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, whose book "Guerilla Radios in Southern Africa" makes an important contribution to the debate on radio in Southern Africa. But also curators such as Aino Moongo - who curated the exhibition "Stolen Moments", which retells the history of music in Namibia. Or musicians like Fernando Damon, radio producers like Cynthia Marangwanda, and radio founders like Ntone Edjabe (Panafrican Space Station). The guests come from all over the region - from Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

Transcultural exchange on diverse practices of listening and oral traditions plays a role in contributions on the musical instrument Mbira by Reginald Tinavapi or on the ritual Malopo dances by Duduzile Mazuku, but also in archive sessions such as Nickita Maesala's in the "Museum of Things we Forgot to Remember" and an activation of archive materials in joint jam sessions.

The project aims to create a space that allows participants from different contexts to share their experiences, challenges and tools for collaborative organisation. We want to address the question of who is responsible for the cultural technology of listening and hope to develop new models for the acoustic media of the future.

The results of the workshop will be presented both on the "Transcultural Listening Map" website and at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in October 2024.

Bauhaus.listening.workshop #3
17-22 March 2024
Goethe-Institut Johannesburg

Participants: 

Aerosol-Tinofireyi Zhou Zimbabwe
Aino Moongo Germany / Namibia
Cynthia Marangwanda Zimbabwe
Fernando Damon South Africa
Kim Karabo Makin Botswana
Mazuku Duduzile South Africa
Naledi Chai South AfricaNesindano Namises Namibia
Nickita Maesela South Africa
Reginald Tinavapi Zimbabwe
Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Siviwe James South Africa
Tendayi Chakanyuka Zimbabwe
Ntone Edjabe Panafrican Space Station / Chimurenga, South Africa (online)
Aaron Peters The Other Radio, South Africa (online)

“Listening to the World — 100 Years of Radio” is a project of the Goethe-Institut, the Experimental Radio at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).
“Listening to the World — 100 Jahre Radio” is a project of excellence by the Goethe-Institut and co-funded through the project Neues Europäisches Bauhaus of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).